CHAPTER 5
Moral Philosophy:
A Brief Introduction
It seems that man is by nature a value setting animal. We
speak of the good life, and ask how best to go about achieving it.
Aristotle begins his Nichomachean Ethics with the statement,
“Every art and every inquiry, and similarly every action and
pursuit, is thought to aim at some good; and for that reason the
good has rightly been declared to be that at which all things aim.”
So, we begin the study of ethics, the study of the right and wrong
of human conduct. We shall examine some traditional views and
some contemporary views as to how we go about determining
some of the rights and wrongs of human conduct. Finally, we
will learn about twelve moral philosophies and discuss the
unique contribution of each to this most important subject.
The terms ethics and morality are often, and properly, used
interchangeably. However, there is a technical difference be
tween the two terms. Ethics is the study of human conduct, and
attempts to determine the norms which are considered to be
good, as well as those which are considered to be bad. Morality
attempts not so much to decide first principles, but to decide how
to act upon them. Ethics deals with the study of right and wrong,
morality deals with the doing of right and wrong.
Immanuel Kant put forward three postulates which he deter
mined to be necessary to the study of ethics:
1 )Free Will. Kant maintains that one must accept the concept
of free will if there is to be any value in the study of ethics. If man
is a determined being, has been shaped by his environment, and
simply responds to stimuli, then there is no reason to study
ethics— we do what we are programed to do and cannot assess
value for acts over which we have no control. Free will is the
basis for our human acts which have moral worth— to choose or
not to choose, that is the great moral question. Kant contends that
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